Jonathan Darby's The Window Of Poverty

Art as a documentary tool highlighting the contrast between the brutality of poverty and the beauty of art as inspired by Jonathan Darby’s art in my art work “The Window of Poverty”.

In the world today there are more poverty stricken people than rich people and yet society tends not to see them as part of society. Children that live on the streets are seen as being invisible and yet they will one day be a big part of society, in either a good or a bad way, depending on what path they will take.

My artwork tackles the idea of poverty and suffering as being a real issue that should not be ignored. That is why I chose my theme as “The struggle is real” as to these people each day is a struggle to live and to survive. Not many people take
It is composed of four separate sketches depicting various children’s suffering, done in chalk pastel on very bright neon paper. All four sketches are enclosed by a window frame so that one is given the impression of looking through a window of poverty. Jonathan Darby’s drawings of children embrace the brutality of poverty along with the beauty and innocence of a child. This inspired me to try and create a piece of art that was beautiful but at the same time reflects the harshness of
He does this by choosing beautiful innocent looking children and surrounding them in the background, with drab colours and symbols of war such as the words “AK47” and newsprint depicting kneeling soldiers with guns raised, representing the horrors of war and poverty. This combination of harshness and beauty was a major inspiration for my work as I wanted my piece to be both beautiful but reflect the sadness of poverty. He captures this sadness again in Kidogo (Figure C) as the child looking at us has big, scared eyes and looks impossibly innocent, surrounded by bullet holes and symbols of guns and